Israelis dodge rockets while the world media dodges the truth

By David E. Kaplan

Fun-loving, free-thinking, tolerant and vibrant, globally popular Tel Aviv  is known as the “City that never sleeps”.

These days Tel Aviv retains that moniker but for a different reason.

Its citizens, like so much all around Israel, lie awake at night waiting for the shriek of the siren to pierce the air and get them scurrying off to their bomb shelters.

It’s a few minutes after midnight, and following the threat of Hamas to rain terror over Tel Aviv, they follow through on their promise and extend their range to the entire Dan region and so we are in our stairwell in Kfar Saba as there is no time to get to a bomb shelter – six floors below!

You can’t chance a lift and you can’t run down six flights. It’s a death defying dilemma!

We hear the inevitable, and a few minutes after the deafening “Boom-Booms” as Israel’s Iron Domes intercept Hamas’ rockets, I say, “I’m going back inside”, to which I’m wisely-wifely counseled:

“No, wait. There may be falling debris.”

Dead right!

The rockets from Gaza may be taken out by the Iron Dome but there remains the danger from falling debris that causes havoc on the ground.

Attesting to this, I then receive a text message from my son in Tel Aviv: “Massive debris just fallen on Florintin, near our apartment.”

Florintin, with its bohemian cafes, laid-back bars with craft beer and live bands and its vendors selling bureka filo pastries and falafel at the famed Levinsky Market, is none of that these days.

People are playing the Lottery of Life at home!

Further south and five kilometres east of Gaza lies kibbutz Kfar Aza, perennially on the frontlines in the wars with those calling the ‘shots’ in Gaza.

Located only one mile or 1.6 kilometers from the Gaza border, the residents of this farming and industrial community are typically bleary-eyed from waking up to air raid sirens, sending them RUNNING to bomb shelters. The meaning of ‘running’ was made clear when I turned on i24NEWS, and heard a young woman in her early twenties being interviewed.  She said:

 “For the last six days, all I’ve eaten is cereal.”

“How come?” asked the interviewer surprised.

“Because I don’t want to be caught cooking a meal when the siren goes and have to remember to turn off the gas.”

The interviewer, believing she has grasped the terrifying reality, replies:

“Yes, I understand you only have 15 seconds.”

“NO!” corrects the young kibbutz resident:

 “We, at Kfar Aza have only 5 seconds!”

That is 5 seconds to reach safety. Not everyone on Kibbutz Aza over the years has made it in time and sadly rest today in the local cemetery!

Even more deadly than rockets over the short range are the mortars. Firing explosive shells, mortars are aimed at targets which are close thus evading radar detection. No threat to the Israel’s big cities because of their greater distances from Gaza, mortars are a menace to the communities within an 8-10 kilometer range of Gaza.

This Tuesday was just such a horrifying day!

The Menace of Mortars

With mortars, there is no warning, only death and injury if they strike a target. This happened this Tuesday afternoon, May 18,  when a barrage of 50 mortars were fired from Gaza at the Eshkol Regional Council scoring a direct hit on a packing plant at Moshav Ohad resulted in the killing of two Thai workers and wounding ten others.  That’s how indiscriminate these attacks are – their aim is to kill Jews and ends up killing Thais!

It can just as easily kill Arabs as it did a week earlier when it struck a moving vehicle outside of Lod killing Halil Awad, 52, and his 16-year-old daughter, Nadine.

Another of Tuesday’s mortgage barrage hit the Erez Crossing where it wounded a 19-year-old Israel soldier with shrapnel wounds to his upper body.

However, beyond the twisted remains of the mortar’s casting found on the killing ground was also revealed some twisted irony!

The injured Israeli soldier was part of a military unit assisting in transferring humanitarian aid in convoys into the Gaza Strip! Israel had earlier in the day, temporarily reopened both the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza, allowing many truckloads of fuel, medical equipment and animal feed into the enclave, and it was while the crossings were opened – HELPING THE PEOPLE OF GAZA –  that Hamas launched the large mortar barrage across the border, killing the two Thai workers, injuring eight and injuring the Israeli soldier helping the residents of Gaza.

And what should be most noted, especially the selective eyesight of the ICC (International Criminal Court) watchdog was that the Hamas terror cell firing these mortars, were doing so from inside a school in Gaza – a violation of the Rules of Armed Conflict and hence a War Crime.

There is an unspoken military policy in Israel “that quiet would be answered with quiet”, so if the world genuinely wants to help support bringing “quiet” to this war-torn region, stop equating Israel with the genocidal terrorists who ruin more than rule Gaza.  Hamas, which is responsible for the nearly 4000 rockets fired so far, publicly and officially calls for the “extermination of Jews and Christians to the last” and teaches these destructive worldviews as early at kindergarten.

Hardly a calling to engender “quiet”.

In 2017, Yahya Sinwar – Hamas’ present leader in Gaza – reiterated once again that “Hamas will never recognize Israel”.  He declared the terror organization will never disarm, adding:

“Gone is the time in which Hamas discussed recognition of Israel. The discussion now is about when we will wipe out Israel.”

Could he not be clearer as he was in word  in 2017 as he is in deed in 2021?

Following this war, all future financial support to help Gaza recover, should not be spent underground for Hamas but above ground for the people.

The message is clear and it should be to the world and the United Nations:

Support the Gazan people by not supporting Hamas

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)

By Harris Zvi Green

People living around the world are not always fully aware of the issues pertaining to the Israel-Gaza conflict. They see television footage of the extensive damage caused to national infrastructures on both sides of the border. They hear about the tragic loss of life.

At best, media commentary refers superficially to the history of the conflict. It almost always ignores the context. Television cameras focus exclusively on photo opportunities. Their footage invariably shows specific or isolated events. The footage shown is driven by rating. Its prime purpose is to connect between one commercial break and the next. The overall picture is always distorted.

The following summary attempts to lay out the facts. I’m not seeking to present my point of view.

• In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its military and civilian presence from the Gaza Strip and returned to the internationally recognized pre -1967 border.

• The Gaza Strip – an integral part of the proposed ‘Two-state solution’ – is governed by Hamas after it seized control of the area from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

• Hamas has been declared a terror organization by a number of international courts, including the European Union’s General Court.

• The Court ruled that Hamas is not a sovereign state. Furthermore, it ruled that Hamas had failed to display that its political and armed wings are separate.

• Gaza is reportedly threatened with a major humanitarian crisis. Nonetheless, its rulers have successfully accumulated an arsenal of missiles with a range of up to 250 kilometers. The more sophisticated rockets in their arsenal have the range to reach any target in Israel. Theoretically, they have the range to overfly Israel and hit major population centers in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

• Hamas has invested millions of dollars to create an infrastructure of tunnels to enable attacks on civilian neighbourhoods inside sovereign Israel. This metro of tunnels inside Gaza also serves to provide refuge for Hamas military operatives from Israeli airstrikes.

• Since achieving its “independence”, Gaza initiated a number of major military confrontations with Israel. Even during the relatively peaceful interludes between these confrontations, thousands of rockets fired from Gaza were fired on Israeli civilian targets.

• The Hamas regime is widely regarded as an Iranian proxy dedicated to promoting the Islamic Jihad.

• In order to limit the free flow of arms from Iran to Gaza, both Israel and Egypt imposed a naval blockade on Gaza. This blockade was deemed legal by the UN appointed Palmer Commission. In the words of the Commission: “Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza. The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law.”

• To defend itself, Israel developed the Iron Dome air defense system to intercept the barrage of missiles being fired at civilian targets.

• Israel recently completed the construction of an underground security obstacle on its sovereign territory at an enormous cost to effectively eliminate the threat of these tunnels on its civilian population.

• During the past few days, more than 2,500 missiles have been fired at civilian targets in Israel.

• Hamas continues to hold two Israeli citizens hostage and the bodies of two Israeli servicemen killed in action in 2014.

• In an attempt to provide basic services to the Gaza’s civilian population, Israel provides both power and water to Gaza.

• Thousands of trucks transport food and medical supplies to Gaza on a daily basis.
  

I invite readers to draw their conclusions and to engage in a constructive debate regarding the future. If you scroll down below, Lay Of The Land invites you to comment and freely express your views in the space provided.  Avail yourselves of the opportunity to engage.

Clearly, the current state of affairs is untenable. It can’t continue.

About the writer:

Harris Zvi Green, born in Cape Town / South-Africa. Graduated from the University of Cape Town with a B. Com. degree and immigrated to Israel 51 years ago. He served as the Chief Financial Officer at a number of Israeli hi-tech companies. He is now retired. Married with three married children and is the proud grandfather of 13 grandchildren.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)

Israel under attack from the Air and the Airwaves

By David E. Kaplan

“Abba; Az’aka….”.

It’s 2.00am, and that’s the voice of my 3-year-old grandson having woken to the piercing siren shrill from his 12^th floor bedroom in a Tel Aviv high-rise, and screaming in Hebrew – “Daddy, siren!”.

Within 12 seconds, the family is out of the apartment and closeted in a central bomb shelter on their floor waiting for the next sound  – hopefully – a deafening “Boom-Boom”. I write “hopefully”, because the alternate sound to the “Boom-Boom” of Israel’s defensive Iron Dome missile intercepting a missile from Gaza is that of the rocket penetration through Israel’s defensive net and striking a civilian target.

That is exactly what happened a few minutes later as a rocket ploughed into an apartment complex in Petach Tikva, a few kilometers east of Tel Aviv. The building instantly burst into a five-floor towering flame and five elderly residents were rushed to hospital. That there were no fatalities was a miracle. I stared at the flames on TV and thought:

 “How could anyone survive that?”

This is daily life in Israel today as nearly 2000 rockets have rained down on Israel since the beginning of the war started by Hamas but instigated, encouraged and sponsored by Iran. Apart from the mounting death and daily destruction, there is the anxiety whether experienced by a 3-year-old or a  67-year old woman resident of Rishon Lezion who died early on Wednesday after suffering heart failure on hearing of her friend being killed in a rocket attack on her home.

Yes, we’ve been through this before but not with such concentrated intensity. If we were horrified back in 2014 during the seven week Protective Edge by 200 rockets from Gaza coming over in one day – at its peak – that same number these days can come at us in less than five minutes.

Terrifying!

The aim of Hamas is to overwhelm and undermine Israel’s defensive missile system – and at times it is working as the rising casualties and destruction will attest. Every night, we can expect at some stage to hear what can only be described as the soundtrack to a war movie, and then we scramble for the news on social media and TV, to see the visual results as we silently pray:

 “Please, no more death!”

Israel is locked into a lottery of life and death against an enemy not aiming for a Palestinian state but destroying a Jewish one – the only Jewish state in the world.

Having been through this script before, we never have to wait too long before the world media predictably turns against Israel focusing less on the rockets fired from Gaza on civilian targets in Israel and more on Israel’s aerial defensive action in Gaza.

I turn on CNN this Friday morning and hear Diana Buttu the Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the PLO from Ramallah tell anchorman Michael Holmes that this is the result of years “of Israeli ethnic cleansing” and “that is why it is so important for the international community to put pressure,” not on Hamas but “on Israel to end this.”

Note the tone and transparent bias of Holmes when he frames his next question:

“Has this barrage of rockets from Gaza been a tactical blunder by Hamas in the sense of being what was a fairly popular uprising in Jerusalem over evictions and therefore made it easier for Israel to justify using overwhelming force as it always does. Was it a blunder by Hamas?”

Butto replies:

“You know Michael, this did not begin with the rockets, but the decision by this Israeli government to  incite, inflame and to kill,” born out for Butto, “by Israeli calls to flatten Gaza.”

Holmes not only allows Butto to get away with these outrageous allegations – he facilitates it!

Accepting her  vituperative verbiage without challenge, he then asks:

“What does the international community need to do not only to broker this round of violence  but set up some pathway forward?”

Butto is on a roll with this CNN anchorman and answers:

“It’s simple, Michael. All they need to do is put sanctions on Israel; it’s really that simple. Instead we see leader after leader coddle Israel…. There is an active BDS campaign, which needs to be adopted and pushed….just as there were mechanisms to end apartheid in South Africa,  these same mechanisms can be used to end Israeli apartheid.”

Accepting this analysis, Holmes concludes his patently anti-Israel interview by directing some token ‘blame’  at the Palestinians by asking:

 “The Palestinians surely need to get their act together; elections were postponed and there isn’t a strong leadership and then you have Hamas in Gaza doing what they do. In other words, Israel needs Hamas as a visible enemy …… What do the Palestinian wings have to do to get their house in order?”

Butto replies that while the Palestinians need a new leadership, “this should not detract that it is up to Israel, forced by the international community to end this military occupation. They don’t need to have a Palestinian leadership in place to end the occupation.”

This shows how Israel is under attack not only from the air but the airwaves!

Do the TV network news commentators sitting in New York, London, Paris, or Johannesburg ever ask the question:

“What if one rocket, never mind 200 in 5 minutes, landed in London, or Paris or New York or Johannesburg – what would our leaders do?” 

From once the plucky underdog supported by Western public opinion, today, Israel is the object of a global campaign to demonise the state and question its very right to exist.

Which means, if Israel has no right to exist, it has no right to defend itself.

Only a month ago on April 7, Israel commemorated on Yom HaShoah, the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust as a result not ONLY of the actions carried out by Nazi Germany and its collaborators but of a world that mostly stood by and allowed it to happen.

Israelis can see – It would do so again!

And what can one say about the DNA of Hamas after releasing a statement following the rapid firing of 100 rockets at Israel yesterday that:

 “firing on Tel Aviv is easier than drinking water”?

When “drinking”, Jews toast, “L’Chaim” – “to life”. Hamas prefers: “to death”!

That’s the fundamental difference!

All I know as we prepare for another night of Gaza sending their aerial messages of hate, no 3-year-old in his bed with his fluffy friends should even know the word “Az’aka”!

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).